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In a recent interview with John Allen (which is worth reading in full), Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia remarked that those on the “right wing” of the Church “generally have not been really happy” about the election of Pope Francis. The Archbishop said a lot of other things, but this remark garnered the most attention.

Over at his blog, Michael Sean Winters pounced—“the most important thing Chaput said about Pope Francis,” he called it—and cites it as evidence that Pope Francis makes conservative Catholics “grumpy.” Winters finds this conservative proclivity to grumpiness revealing because, presumably, it confirms his preexisting stereotype of conservatives as dour, joyless, scolds. The joyful Francis, by contrast, and the wildly enthusiastic response he has received, is thus, a decisive repudiation of grumpy conservatives and a validation of, well, of Winters’ criticisms of grumpy conservatives.

Winters asks:

Why, then, would conservative Catholics be so upset? If what they wanted all along [i.e, New Evangelization] is coming to fruition, why the long faces? The answer is simple, and Archbishop Chaput’s guarded, even grudging, comments about Pope Francis point us to the reason: Pope Francis, within a matter of months, has destroyed the prevailing narratives about secularization and Catholic identity among Catholic conservatives, and he has done so without even trying.

Just which “narratives of secularization and Catholic identity” Winters is talking about he doesn’t really say. Nor does he indicate which Catholic conservatives were spinning such yarns. In fact, Winters doesn’t cite a single instance of a Catholic, conservative or otherwise, saying anything disparaging about the Pope. (Odd, since such things can be found.) Winters does, however, suggest, or at least imply, that, thanks to his (supposed) admission of disaffection, Archbishop Chaput will suffice as a fair proxy for the whole, unhappy lot.

Photo: Archbishop Chaput, An Irrepressible Grump?

Winters conveniently, if not fairly, treats “right wing” and “conservative” as interchangeable terms, and since we all know (wink, wink) that Chaput is an archconservative, the following equivalence can be made: “right-wing unhappy about Francis”= “conservatives unhappy about Francis”= “Chaput unhappy about Francis.” Never mind the fact that, in the interview, Chaput speaks of the Church’s “right wing” in the third person, not the first.

See for yourself. here’s the relevant question and Chaput’s answer, in full:

Q. Do you think there will be a moment of reckoning when the honeymoon wears off?

A. We’ll see what happens. The pope may have a way of managing all of that will be extraordinary, I don’t know. I would think that by virtue of his office, he’ll be required to make decisions that won’t be pleasing to everybody.

This is already true of the right wing of the church. They generally have not been really happy about his election, from what I’ve been able to read and to understand. He’ll have to care for them, too, so it will be interesting to see how all this works out in the long run.

Does that sound like Archbishop Chaput is giving voice to his own grievances toward Francis? Or do Chaput’s actual words make it pretty clear that the concerns of the “right wing” are not, in fact, his own, though as a pastor he is aware of such concerns? To read Archbishop Chaput’s interview as manifestly “grudging” and “grumpy” towards the popularity of Pope Francis strikes me as myopic, careless, or worse.

As unwarranted as Winters’ reading of Archbishop Chaput’s comment about a disaffected “right-wing” might seem, when compared to some of the other things Chaput said about Pope Francis—in the very same interview—Winters’ take sounds especially contrived. Chaput, for example, says this: “My sense is that practicing Catholics love [Francis] and have a deep respect for him.” And this: “Thanks be to God that the Lord has given us a pope with such universal appeal to so many people.” And then there’s this “right-wing” talking point: “I thought [Pope Francis’s visit to Lampedusa] was wonderful. It was very touching moment. I hope it leads to concrete results, because you just never know if they really do. I think it was something that touched the heart of anybody who paid attention, especially those of who are in favor of reasonable immigration laws.”

Photo: Not a Grump

At one point, Archbishop Chaput states, “I think part of [the enthusiasm for Francis] is genuine appreciation for the pope’s extraordinary friendliness and transparency.” Yet somehow, Winters manages to interpret these words to signify the exact opposite of their plain meaning. “[W]hat excites many of us Catholics today about Pope Francis, and something that I suspect escapes Archbishop Chaput and some of his fellow conservative prelates, is that it is easier for the flock of Christ to discern that their pastors are friends of Jesus when those pastors are actually friendly.”

All of this smacks of a willingness to find discord where none exists. Winters’ reluctance to admit of, let alone celebrate, common cause on important matters (spreading the Gospel) with those with whom he disagrees on less important matters (politics) strikes me as rather…unhelpful.

Winters, to his credit, sees both continuity and complementarity between Francis and his predecessors. He also sees that Francis has a magnetic appeal that Pope Benedict never had and that even Pope John Paul II lacked, at least in his later years of illness and declining health. He takes encouragement from the powerful and unambiguous Christian witness of Pope Francis. He sees each of these facts as cause for celebration. Yet for some reason, and despite a great deal of evidence to the contrary, Winters can’t seem to bring himself to admit that “conservative” Catholics (or at least those Winters considers conservative) overwhelmingly see in Pope Francis, and celebrate in Pope Francis, the very same things that Winters himself admires.

It’s almost enough to wonder if Mr. Winters himself isn’t being, if not grumpy, at least a tiny bit grudging.

90 thoughts on “Conservative Catholics, Does Pope Francis Make You Grumpy?”

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When I read and see the actions of pope Francis, I realize he is closer to executing the word of God than we have seen in the past. He is the the light of truth the church has needed for such a long time. The conservatives of the church today remind me of the pharisees of the bible. It’s as ironic now as it was then. The Pharisees viewed them selves as loyal to God, or loved of God – extremely ironic in view of the fact that by His time, they made themselves the most bitter, and deadly, opponents of Jesus Christ and His message. Right in line with the conservative Catholics of today and their inability to see the core message of Jesus christ. It happens ever so often. Last time I can remember was during Vatican II.

Seems the pope is more fixated on the Curia as an issue than on other extraordinary issues within the Church body. Little has been definitive and perfectly clear as issued from the Chair of Peter during this pontificate. We are in muddier waters as Catholics, with less unity of leadership thought than I can ever recall in my own lifetime. How can the Church survive when statements made by the Pope about issues (divorced receiving communion, gays becoming more mainstreamed [ergo more accepted as normal]) are greeted and accepted equally by opposite sides as proving either his upholding of tradition or as proving he is moving the Church away from hundreds of years of tenets. And now he’s going to issue statements about global warming? This is way off-base and will be yet another bucket of goo added to the mix, another source of controversy embraced by both sides.

He preaches about the role of shepherds (priests, bishops, etc) focusing more on the people and less on form and structure. Yet the bulk of his time and statements are about structure…the Curia. He is actively reshaping the College of Cardinals to suit his own aims…if that isn’t focus on form and structure, what is? He is single-handedly deconstructing all the good done by JP II and B16 who had pulled so many parts and people of the Church who had been drifting off without leadership. There was no discussion or uncertainty about what Francis’ predecessors supported and believed and how they were leading the Church. In rejecting form and structure, he also rejects the role of leadership…successful leaders depend on form and structure. The Church membership isn’t a herd of cats (independent and essentially unmanageable), we’re sheep; we need leaders to point the true way; not to create and sow chaos, misunderstanding, bewilderment. Sheep know what to do once in the pasture; we Catholics know (or should know) how to conduct our lives to reflect Jesus to the world. But leaders are needed to provide bulwark against the foes (and they remain legion), to provide sustenance, to guide us along the right path (psalm 23) and show the way. We know there is only one Way. Francis seems to be bent on destroying confidence in priestly leadership from parish up to the pontiff to point the way by fostering on-going smoke and mirrors in public pronouncements and focusing on one aspect, the Curia, as his main challenge. The Curia surely can’t be the main challenge to bolstering and retaining our Catholic faith in these trying times. Nor can statements on global warming advance anyone’s commitment and understanding to Christian teachings.

This communist fool of a Pope will destroy the Church. The Catholic Church of late has been thriving due to its reverence towards the family and traditional values. Pandering to anti-Christian leftist interests will do nothing to grow the Church only fracture it.

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